Is it legal in Hong Kong? Drug law, penalties and sources

A substance can be caught without being named

Part I of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance opens with a long list of named substances, and most people stop reading there. Paragraph 1 then continues with sixteen further limbs, lettered (b) to (q), which catch compounds by their chemical structure rather than by name. They cover tryptamines, phenethylamines, fentanyl analogues, pethidine analogues, piperazines, cathinones, arylcyclohexylamines, eight separate synthetic cannabinoid scaffolds, and since 2025 etomidate analogues.

That is why searching the schedule for a drug's name and finding nothing proves very little. Mescaline, MDMA, DMT and the 2C series are none of them named in the First Schedule, and all of them are controlled, because paragraph 1(b) and paragraph 1(c) reach them by structure.

Paragraphs 2 to 4 then extend the schedule again, to stereoisomers, to esters and ethers, and to salts. Psilocybin is reached that way rather than directly: psilocin is a ring-hydroxy tryptamine caught by paragraph 1(b), and psilocybin is its phosphate ester, caught by paragraph 3.

Import, export, supply and trafficking are one offence

In many countries these are separate offences with separate penalties. Hong Kong defines trafficking to include all of them. Section 2 provides that trafficking, in relation to a dangerous drug, includes importing into Hong Kong, exporting from Hong Kong, procuring, supplying or otherwise dealing in or with the dangerous drug, or possessing the dangerous drug for the purpose of trafficking.

So a single band in section 4(3) covers conduct that elsewhere would be spread across four or five provisions. Manufacture is separate, under section 6, and carries the same maximum. Cultivating the cannabis plant or the opium poppy is separate again, under section 9.

The fine and the prison term are cumulative

Each band in the Ordinance reads as a fine and imprisonment, not a fine or imprisonment. A court may impose both, and the figures below are maximums rather than starting points.

Possession and consumption are one offence under section 8, which covers having a dangerous drug and also smoking, inhaling, ingesting or injecting it.

Many familiar drugs are medicines here, not dangerous drugs

Tramadol, buprenorphine, zolpidem, pregabalin, gabapentin, quetiapine, memantine, methylphenidate and mescaline's neighbours in the pharmacy are controlled under the Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. Schedule 3 to those regulations lists substances that may be sold by retail only on a prescription from a registered medical practitioner, dentist or veterinary surgeon.

The distinction matters enormously to a traveller. A substance in the poisons schedules carries the penalties of the medicines law. A substance in the First Schedule to Cap. 134 carries a maximum of life imprisonment.

Dextromethorphan is the clearest case of the split. Paragraph 2 of the First Schedule expressly excludes it from the dangerous drugs stereoisomer rule, and it is controlled instead as a poison. Being written out of one regime is not the same as being uncontrolled.

Cannabidiol is a dangerous drug in Hong Kong

CBD is named in Part I of the First Schedule. It sits alongside heroin and cocaine in the same list and attracts the same maximum penalties, which is not the case in most of the jurisdictions on this site.

The cannabinol entry reaches further still. It covers cannabinol and its tetrahydro or hexahydro derivatives and their 3-alkyl homologues, which takes in delta-8-THC, HHC and THC-P by the words of the entry rather than by any separate listing.

What the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance provides

Every substance confirmed against a primary source

77 substances have a status for Hong Kong verified against a named statute. Each row links to the full entry, with the consequences, the prescription position and the source.

Not separately listed

Sources

• Dangerous Drugs Ordinance (Cap. 134) Read as the consolidation in force on 12 June 2026, from the Department of Justice HKLM XML.
• Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations (Cap. 138A) Read as the consolidation in force on 3 July 2026. Schedule 1, Schedule 3 and the Poisons List at Schedule 10.
• Control of Chemicals Ordinance (Cap. 145) Read as the consolidation in force on 11 April 2025, for precursors including ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.
• Hong Kong e-Legislation bulk dataset The Department of Justice publishes the consolidated legislation as XML. Consulted 16 September 2026.

Statute text on this page is quoted from the copies linked above. Last verified October 4, 2026.